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It's autumn where I live, and, unlike most years, the
season’s arrival coincided with the date on the calendar. As if on cue, the air
turned cool and crisp and the leaves began to turn. The drop from summer's heat
to fall's cooler temperatures sent me scrambling into the depths of my closet
for a coat. This autumn promises to be an interesting one for
me.At my workplace, I am moving into my
final stage of training before I get to turn in my paperwork and sit for my
8-hour exam.That means that I am
suddenly doing a lot more in both clinical and didactic studies…which is
exciting and overwhelming at the same time.This is a busy season at work anyway, and the extra studies on top of
that are a challenge. I am also doing new things in my writing.I have my secret project that I am currently
editing.This is a huge step forward for
me.The things I have learned over the
past couple months have been tremendous.I’d really like to see my secret project go all the way through editing
an…

Here are my snippets from week two of the 100 for 100 Challenge at GoTeenWriters:

...the swarms of fashionable teens and tweens flowing from every direction
toward those two jaws they called doors.

It all filled me with an overwhelming desire to crawl under the van
seats and become permanently forgotten...like the leftover cheetos that were
already down there.

Dude, your shoulders are not snowplows!

Embarrassment clouded my vision and I struggled to focus on the steps as
I hurried into the school.

Inside the school hall, the smells of fresh floor wax blended with the
perfumes and colognes of students eager to make their first impressions.Later the scents would die down to sweaty
socks and lemon floor cleaner, but for now everything was new and fresh.

“You have to sit with
us or Miss Young will think we aren’t doing our assignment,” she said, leading
me to a table where Renee and Gertrude were already sitting.

It amazes me how much writing is like a mind game. We talk about this in sports. If you want to be the top of your sport, you have to believe that you can do it.
Even for top athletes, this is not easy. Thoughts come. "It's too far. It's too high. You won't make it this time. Your opponent is better than you." When you are breaking records, you are asking your body to go beyond what it thinks it can do. If you give in to those negative thoughts, all of your physical efforts will fall short. You won't make it.
You have to turn it around. "I can do this. I'm good at this. I will reach my goal. I can push harder because I have even more to give."
Artists know about the mind game, too. Your emotion is visible in the lines you create. What do you think about as you portray your subject? Whatever it is will be visible in your art. The end goal is different (no marathons or long-jumps here), but you still have to h…

Here, as promised, are some snippets from the writing I have done this week in the 100 for 100 challenge. Enjoy!

The man, in his dress pants and button-up shirt, had a look of polite
duty – as though he were picking up a business partner.

If there’s anything I hate, it’s random strangers cuddling you like a
stray puppy.

Mrs. Rithaven twisted
her face in a wistful expression as she looked around the room.“We’ve never had a little girl before,” she
said.Her eyes were soft and bright.

He seemed to be one of those children who have mastered the art of
perpetual motion and haven’t figured out how to control it.

Houses were scattered few and far between, and most of them were nestled into the woods like hermits.

She took the hint and her hands fluttered nervously as she dropped
her arms. “He looks like Jeremy,” I thought, turning my eyes away. It was an unwelcome thought, and I tried to
block it out. I didn’t want to think
about Jeremy. “Nope,” I said, pulli…

I had so much fun on Go Teen Writers last week, reading the comments. The post was about the adventures that we, as writers, have through our stories. Maybe one writer feels like she has been wandering through a parched desert with her main character. Maybe another writer has been kidnapped by pirates. Maybe a third writer helped 100 Jews escape from Germany. If you think about the adventures that we go on (through our characters...while sitting in front of a Microsoft Word screen), we lead pretty amazing lives!

Hi, readers! I just wanted to let you know that I am doing the 100 for 100 Challenge, hosted by Go Teen Writers (you can see the badge in my sidebar). And I am going to try to set up one day a week with snippets for you.
Essentially the challenge is to write 100 words (or more) per day for 100 days. The point is to build the habit of writing regularly.
The rules stipulate that it has to be on one project (there are a couple exceptions, which you can read about on their announcement post).
Thankfully, they allow one "grace day" per week and one "grace week" per challenge. I used this week's grace day yesterday (on the first day of the challenge) due to unpredictable circumstances which had me far from my writing implements. Ahem. With my job, this challenge might be difficult, but I am going to try it anyway.
I wrote 738 words on my project today. But, since the point of the challenge is to build good habits, my wordiness today d…

Ladies and Gentlemen, I am pleased to announce the cover reveal information from Rachel Heffington's new novel. Without further ado:

The Back-Cover Blurb:
The 12:55 out of Darlington brought more than Orville Farnham's niece; murder was passenger.
In coming to Whistlecreig, Genevieve Langley expected to find an ailing uncle in need of gentle care. In reality, her charge is a cantankerous Shakespearean actor with a penchant for fencing and an affinity for placing impossible bets.
When a body shows up in a field near Whistlecreig Manor and Vivi is the only one to recognize the victim, she is unceremoniously baptized into the art of crime-solving: a field in which first impressions are seldom lasting and personal interest knocks at the front door.
Set against the russet backdrop of a Northamptonshire fog, Anon, Sir, Anon cuts a cozy path to a chilling crime.

I am not sure if we are still allowed to call it "Beautiful People" when we are talking about villains. Hmmm. There is a bit of philosophy in there somewhere. But we are also not willling to rename the whole event just because we talk about a different type of character. So here are this month's Beautiful People questions (see below). I am answering them for Lord Ives.1. What is their motive?To maintain the estate exactly as it has been passed down to him.In his mind, this means that he must provide
the best of everything for his family and honored guests; he must be
aristocratic but congenial to other noblemen; he must keep a clear line between
upper and lower classes.

2. What do they want, and what are they prepared to do to get it?He wants to make sure that the
classes are separated.He is prepared to
beat, starve, shout at, exile, and even kill members of the lower class to
achieve this.He wants instant
obedience.He wants excellence of
service.He was complete serv…

I am so excited to announce that I get to participate in the upcoming cover reveal party for Rachel Heffington's next book: Anon, Sir, Anon. Be sure to check back here on September 15th to see the cover. Yay!
Rachel wrote a post today mentioning how far away the 15th seems. It's true. I was thinking much the same thing myself. However, it will come. In fact, it will be here in only a week.
I had a sneak peek at the cover, and it made me wonder even more about the novel. What is the significance of the ________ (sorry, I deleted that word because I don't want to spoil the cover reveal for you)...mwahhaha) on the front? I can't wait to read the book and find out. :)
See you here next Monday for a look at Anon, Sir, Anon!

This months Chatterbox topic is PEARS. Where does Rachel get these ideas?

"From me head...same as most people." (quote from the Little House on the Praire - Martha books, but it seems appropriate as a response here)
In any case, as surprised as I was, I still think pears is a good topic. I am too busy to write anything new on the subject at the moment, so I will use a old scene with pears (from Dungeon). Enjoy!

The princess huffed angrily and dropped
her pear on the ground. “Woe, now!” the old man remonstrated.“Don’t be angry, my lady.It isn’t good for my digestion.And the fact that the lad won’t take a bribe
doesn’t mean that an old man wouldn’t.He might even take a bruised one,” the old man hinted. Ashamed of her outburst, the princess picked up
the dropped pear and crossed the room to the old man’s cell.“I have an apple, two pears, and an orange,”
she told him, offering him his choice. The old man picked the dropped pear.He took a bite, slurping up the juice as he
went.T…

If you read an author's works, do you know the author? I present the yeahs and nays.

NAYS:
He who writes can write whatever he desires. He has time to make up things about himself...and to leave other things out. You may read his blog daily, but find out later that his life was full of many things that you did not know about.

YEAHS:
A writer who feels more comfortable with paper than people may reveal his true self through his writing. People may be with him every day and yet not know who he truly is. It's the readers who know his deepest thoughts. The masses who read his books may know his heart better than his daily acquaintances.

Draw your own conclusions, but I think that a reader does know the author when she reads his books...particularly if the author is good at what he does.

My regular readers know (from my post earlier this week) that I was getting ready to send my secret project to a beta-reader. Well, I sent it and now I have it back.

There was less red than I expected. When my beta-reader handed my story back to me, I was sure I would find an endless stream of criticisms, filling the margins with his red pen. Instead, I thumbed through several pages that had no corrections at all. He found a few places that were confusing to him, he thought the fight scene needed to be longer, and he seriously called into question one of my side characters.

Now comes the part where I assimilate his work. Everything he says has to be taken seriously. He reacted negatively to the way I described a certain character -- do I want that reaction out of my readers? He was confused about a detail, even though I thought I had explained it -- will other readers miss my explanation, too? He wants a longer fight scene -- do I have room to create it? He tho…

For me, the idea of learning an art is rather a tricky one. Part of being an artist is to express what is already in you as well as to possibly present something to the world in a way that they haven't seen it before. Lessons seem likely to stifle that. Lessons teach you how other people have created art. You learn their brush strokes, their representation of light and darkness, and their favorite subjects. How is that art for you? You are not learning to be an artist but a copycat.
I feel strongly about this, but there is another side to it.
What if there is a picture (or a story, or a song) locked inside of you and you don't know how to get it out? You can see it; you can feel it; you can hear it; but all of your attempts to express it fall horribly short. Then what?
What sort of pride keeps you from listening to the ancients? Why do you refuse to "stand on the shoulders of giants?" If you keep stumbling along, will you eventually find…

On Anne-girl's new blog (Half-Baked), she posted a series of questions for us to answer. Here is the post. Below are the questions and my answers.What is your favorite kind of cake? If you don't eat cake {because of gluten
issues or allergies or diet or whatever} what is your favorite
dessert? I like vanilla...or lemon...with the perfect kind of icing. I am sorry to say that I don't know the name of the perfect icing, but I can promise that I will know it when I taste it.

How long have you been
writing? I was making scribbles across the page in imitation of words before I even knew my alphabet. Whether or not you can actually call that writing...

It is quite possible that you will hear a lot about my secret project. I have already exhausted my mother's ever-patient ears. But it has me in various stages of excitement and despair. The logical part of me lectures, as Marilla did, that I would be better off if I avoided the roller coaster of emotions. Write the story, edit it, submit it -- none of this jittery stuff need be involved. But the Anne side of me refuses to do this. After all, half of the excitement of a Christmas is the anticipation! Is a story submission any less?

Editing has begun. Oddly enough, it isn't as hard as I anticipated. I can't help but wonder if somebody out there is praying for me because, seriously, this was not my forte last time I checked. There were a few scenes that I knew were horrible, but they smoothed out very easily under my fingers. Once I finish going through it (about 5 times), my friend is going to beta-read for me.

Don't worry -- the giveaway itself is not half-baked. This post is about a giveaway hosted by Anne-girl at her new blog: Half-Baked . I have mentioned this blog before -- it is the blog where Anne-girl shares the things she has learned about crafting stories. If you click on the link, you can check it out for yourself. See you there!